"Are you ready?" Youyu asked seriously.
"Mm... Mm." Dark Magician Girl nodded her head.
"Then... then I'm going for it."
Dark Magician Girl shut her eyes tightly and lowered her head, biting her lip.
...
"Black Magician!" Youyu commanded, "Direct attack on 'Dark Magician Girl'!"
The image of the Black Magician soared into the air, and the green magic staff pointed forward. The waves of magic turned into a dark red impact, with explosive magic power sweeping through the field, erupting into black smoke right in front of Dark Magician Girl.
The girl was lifted and thrown backward, her LP dropping to zero with this attack.
Dark Magician Girl's calves bent outward as she sat on the ground in a standard squat, touching her golden little head and sticking her tongue out sheepishly.
"Ah, lost again." She smiled, "I still can't beat master, after all."
This was something Youyu only discovered not long ago, that his own spirit could also accompany him in card duels.
Initially, he thought about whether Dark Magician Girl could help him farm points—by purposefully losing to him continuously to quickly gain experience points, but clearly, good things like that don't happen.
Dueling with his own spirit is similar to friendly matches; it doesn't provide experience rewards. You can only use it for entertainment or to test the deck's strength, familiarize with new decks, not to farm points.
Like now, he was testing the strength of the newly assembled Black Magician deck against Dark Magician Girl.
Though, from the scene, it looked as if the girl was getting beat up, making it seem like he was bullying her...
"Are you okay?" He stepped forward, extending a hand.
"Mm!"
Dark Magician Girl nodded as her delicate little hand grasped his to stand up.
Being a spirit, her constitution is not comparable to that of ordinary humans, not easily exhausted.
While she couldn't maintain it for too long, if it was just a brief period of materialization, she could manage it. For instance, accompanying her card-obsessed master for some games... or casually doing something else.
Meanwhile, Youyu noticed that during this time, the girl's affection seemed to have increased...
All blame lies on the dang random charm value that sometimes even makes him wonder if the affection system is broken—why does it keep going up for no reason?
"Master, your deck is so strong; I didn't stand a chance at all."
Dark Magician Girl dematerialized back to her spirit form, floating behind Youyu.
"Master, you're amazing with any deck!"
"Just average." Youyu replied casually, as he checked the deck construction.
If it was the earliest Black Magician deck, the strength surely couldn't keep up with version evolution, but since 2014, Black Magician had released quite a number of powerful new cards. If he could get those cards from the system card pool, it'd definitely be a force to be reckoned with in today's environment.
Initially, he didn't hold much hope for it.
As an online game, Linked World definitely undergoes version updates, and while the card pool might include some cards from the future, theoretically, the card strength shouldn't surpass the current environment too much.
As expected, after splashing over 80,000 Crystal Stones, none of the strongest cards from the future Black Magic deck like Black Magic Arrangement and Eternal Soul appeared. Either these cards are too rare and too hard to pull, or they simply aren't included in the current card pool, necessitating waiting for version updates to acquire these cards.
(Black Magic Arrangement, Continuous Magic Card, essentially allows card cycling, and removing an opponent's card when summoning a Black Magician.
Eternal Soul, Continuous Trap Card, major effect is special summoning Black Magician each turn from hand or graveyard.)
To his surprise, Youyu managed to pull two future Monster Cards from the card pool, "Magician's Robe" and "Magician's Rod."
Magician's Robe, Level 2, attack power 700, defense power 2000; during the opponent's turn, by discarding a magic trap card from hand, you can special summon a Black Magician from deck.
Magician's Rod, Level 3, attack power 1600, defense power 100; upon summoning, you can select a Black Magician-related magic trap card from deck to add to hand.
Additionally, he pulled quite a formidable trap card, Magic Gate Array, from the pool, which is exceptionally strong in the current environment, even somewhat overpowered.
Magic Gate Array, Trap Card; Special Summons one Black Magician from hand, and special summons a Dark Attribute Spellcaster-Type monster below level 7 from Deck. If you have a Black Magician on the field, you can banish this card from the graveyard to negate the effect of one Spell Trap Card on the field for the turn; this effect cannot be activated in the turn it is sent to the grave.
With these card enhancements, the power of this Black Magic deck is still quite impressive.
Youyu felt the main issue was the lack of a powerful terminal for the "Black Magician," without sufficiently strong monsters to provide adequate suppression.
The deck's core relies on the Black Magician itself, along with various magic traps supporting the Black Magician to fully exploit the versatile nature of a "Top-tier Magician's" magic.
In contrast, compared to his Hero Deck, which focuses on using fusion to rapidly summon powerful monsters, represented by strong-attack monsters like Shining Flare Wingman, Great Tornado, and Gaia.
Comparatively, the Hero deck focuses on using high attack power for quick suppression, while the Black Magician lacks robust attack methods but offers more varied effects.
In complex real battles, it's hard to say which strategy is superior, as each has its strengths and can be switched according to the opponent.
...Alright, thinking about it, it might only be mortals like him who need to consider such trivial issues.
If I had the kind of card-drawing luck like the protagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh, who the heck would care about deck building? I'd definitely throw two systems into one deck and mix them up!
The more weird stuff in the deck, the cooler it is, isn't that common sense?
If you don't believe me, look at Yuki Judai—his deck is a mix of Elemental Hero and Neo Space, and he's never been stuck with a hand.
So, in the end, it's all about bonds. If the bonds are strong enough, why would you need to worry about headaches like these?
...
There's only one week left until the official launch of Duel City.
The minor adjustments to the dueling rules he proposed have finally been modified under his supervision and released by Kaiba Company a week in advance.
The major change is that Magic Cards cannot be activated during the opponent's turn (though due to the president's insistence, they can still be used during the Battle Phase), and the concept of "Battle Recall" has been added.
The duelists didn't find the adjustment of new rules particularly weird. After all, this new rule is already considered a fresh concept, and until it's applied in the main event, it's equivalent to being in the testing stage for them.
Making some minor adjustments before the version update and official server deployment isn't surprising.
Youyu was browsing the forums on his way back.
The open player forums provided quite a bit of amusement during his scattered time, reading the silly players boasting and storytelling was pretty entertaining. Especially seeing them repeatedly reposting Youyu's duel video and GIF, lining up to admire it beneath the posts, was particularly interesting...
Soon, he noticed a new post that became popular today on the forum.
"Damn! The poster stumbled upon a vampire! Got swindled bad, mined for days to exchange rare card, but before it got warm, the vampire snatched it away!"
"Really? Where'd the vampire come from in Yu-Gi-Oh?"
"It's true, I encountered it too!" A player quickly replied. "I lost a duel to her, she said she wanted rare cards but I didn't have any, so she just sucked me dry, I was dumbfounded..."
"Whoa, it's a female vampire?"
"Bro upstairs, can you explain how she sucked you dry? Was it fun? Your story makes me want to try my luck too."
"Fun my foot! She really sucked blood from my neck, and I was totally knocked out, lost one of the three lives in a week..."
Three lives per week is said to be part of the game's anti-addiction setting, with players only able to revive thrice before being forced offline until reset...
...Even if they say that, it's mainly a card game, how often do you encounter life-risking duels? The three lives limit is hardly used up. (Thunder King endorsed with a thumbs-up)
"Wow, worthy of the card king, even vampires in this game follow rules? Must duel before sucking blood?"
"Asking if the poster thinks the vampire is good-looking? If you win against her in a duel, can you do anything at will?"
Indeed, these silly players' first reaction upon seeing a ghost is so unique.
Youyu scrolled through the post, noticing that several players had bumped into the female vampire last night. Many were customers from Youyu's shop who just traded their hard-earned Crystal Stones for useful cards, only to have them snatched by the vampire...
Then Youyu thought. Huh? If the cards they just bought got stolen... Wouldn't they have to come back and buy them again from me?
Does that mean I could earn double from them?
...Pfft! What kind of peaches am I thinking of?
Youyu quickly shut down the nearly capitalist evil thought.
That wouldn't do, when customers encounter such issues, he had to ensure the after-sales service was in place as a shop owner. If possible, he'd also take on the vampire.
Merchants who provide such conscientious after-sales service nowadays are indeed scarce.
Since this issue cropped up in Domino's territory... Surely the Nightwalker World crew would have intel?
So Youyu simply dropped by Nightwalker World Headquarters, seeking info from the president.
Sure enough, he obtained intelligence.
"...It's Quine! It must be Quine!"
President Tosawa Mukuro paced back and forth in his office, scratching his already sparsely haired bald head.
"President, you know her?" Youyu asked.
"Know her, of course!" Tosawa Mukuro said indignantly, "She's a turncoat, swaying with the wind, with no sense of honor! She worked under Pegasus before, but ran quickly when Pegasus's forces collapsed, likely working for the Ghouls now."
"Ghouls, so she's one of Marik's people, huh?"
"Of course." The president snorted coldly, turning to his assistant, "We need to send a message to Marik, let him know his actions are crossing the line. Must condemn! Strongly condemn!"
"Would that work?" Youyu asked leisurely.
Tosawa Mukuro thought, maybe not.
Strongly condemning, if it worked, African uncles would know best, otherwise, people wouldn't consider the United Nations as futile.
"Leave this to me." Youyu said, "I just need to know the vampire's whereabouts, leave the rest...to me."
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